Lucidity
by asylums-angel
Summary: Veser has been having nightmares and they only seem to worsen when he starts spending his nights on Ples' couch. They're more chilling. More real. Not only that, but a tall, faceless man seems to be stalking him. What could it be after?
1. Wake Up

Veser had had this dream night and _night _again, always unsure why. It always began with him running, for whatever reason; always in some foggy, wet place that had the feel of running on water. '_Like Jesus,' _he would laugh to himself, always wanting to shake off the chilling dread he would get from the nightmare. He couldn't remember when the dream had started, only that it had been going on for a while now.

The dream scape would remain blank for a while, just fog and water, then for some reason, the image of his mother would appear in front of him, making it seem as though he was running after her. This, at least, made a bit of sense to him, since he was now searching for her. What didn't make any sense was that these images had started before his father had taken her away. Before he had...

But they had gotten worse once Lee had disappeared. While chasing after his mother, it seemed he progressively got younger, and tall, dark trees began to appear out of the water. He would remember calling after his mother as she got farther and farther away no matter how fast he ran, and his terror would grow as he realized he was then being followed as his mother faded from sight. The surrounding trees became more and more dense as he ran, swaying, almost as if the branched were reaching out to him while a growing darkness was spreading behind him. Up ahead there would always be a larger tree with a clock face imbedded in it, for reasons unknown, and for some reason, that seemed to be his salvation. He would run, and run, and run, and as soon as he began to feel as though he would make it, the darkness from behind would take him; cold, black tendrils pulling him back and...

Veser gasped, sitting up in his bed so quickly his head spun. His rapid pulse thundered in his ears as he looked around, realizing finally that he was in his dorm room, not in that terror of a dream. Standing with a shaky sigh, he peered to the top bunk and noted that, like most nights, his room mate was missing from his assigned bed. _'Don't wanna catch freak-itus,' _the other boy would often say. Veser's pounding heart gave way to a light ticking as he glanced over at the clock hanging on the wall, stating it was nearing three in the morning. Something seemed weird about it, but at that moment, he couldn't place what it was.

He grabbed his keys and headed for the door, deciding now would be a good time to go to the bathroom. Once open, he glanced out into the hallway, noting it was seemingly deserted, which was a little weird for Friday night, even at three. This was a college campus, after all. Shaking his head, he walked out, closing the door behind him and walked down the hall towards the bathroom, getting a slight shiver up his spine. A slight paranoia was started to creep over him as he walked into the dimly lit bathroom, looking around and ducking to see under the stalls. "No one in here, either," he muttered quietly to himself. As quickly as he could, he relieved himself in the nearest urinal and walked to the sinks, turning on one of the faucets, telling the hot water wash over his hands,

Sighing, Veser closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down. He knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep otherwise. When a few minutes had passed, he cut off the water and opened his eyes, only to be greeted by the reflection of a tall man standing behind him. He jumped, whipping around to see who was there and saw no one, his heart hammering in his chest once more. No, there had definitely been someone standing behind him in the reflection. ...Right?

Glancing back in the mirror, he only saw himself and burst out into a shaky, uncertain laughter. No one there. Of course. Had that guy been wearing a _suit?_ "Man..." he said to himself, still laughing at his own paranoia. "You need to lay off the late night munchies..." Looking around once more, he retreated from the bathroom, stalking down the hall quicker than was necessary. Retrieving his dorm key from his pocket, he fumbled to slide it in, cursing at his shaky hands before finally getting it to work. Once in, he went strait for his bed and was once again greeted by the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Veser turned his back to it and laid down on his side, still quite convinced that something was strange about it. It was only when he was about to dose off that realization hit him. _That clock doesn't tick. _He was about to get up and look at it again when another noise made him freeze. There was a quiet _click _and a much louder creak as the sound of the door being opened resonated through the small dorm room. He just lay there, petrified for what seemed like forever, but when he heard no other noise, mustered up the courage to ask, "Derrick..? Hey, Derrick, that you?" Shutting his eyes and swallowing hard, he waited, _hoped _to hear his room mate's mocking laughter and taunts, but got none of that.

Whirling around and off the bed, Veser shouted as if to reassure himself of his own courage and strength, ready to pounce on whoever had decided to invade his dorm and freak him out, but was again greeted by no one. Only an open door. "S-Seriously..." he managed to sputter out. "What...the hell..." Hesitantly, he walked over to the open door, gripping the handle tightly, peering out yet again into the deserted hallway. Of _course _no one was there.

He closed the door, shaking, and slowly becoming convinced that he was going crazy. Veser walked back to his bed and buried himself in the sheets, telling himself that he was going to ignore any other weirdness for the rest of the night.

"Veser."

Great. Now he was hearing things.

"Veser..."

Who was that? Veser sat back up, feeling the need to find out, though unsure why. There wasn't anyone else in the room, was there? He turned around, looking again at the clock, then around slightly, seeing no movement other than the shadow of tree branches from outside. But, unless the street lamps from outside were moving, or those shadows were slowly extending. Swallowing the rock that had formed in his throat, Veser slowly followed the edge of the shadow with his eyes, landing in a dark corner of the room. Just shadow. Just darkness.

No. Someone was there. Someone was _watching. _Veser's mind was racing as the figure in the corner became more clear and appeared identical to what he had seen in the mirror. A tall, thin man wearing a suit. _But where was his face? _He wanted to run, he wanted to scream, he wanted to do _anything _but just stand there, but he _couldn't. _No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move a muscle in his body. Even when the limbs he had mistaken as tree shadows continued to creep closer, he couldn't bring himself to budge, as if his body was completely disobeying every screaming command in his head.

It was as though his heart was going to hammer its way out of his chest before those shadow-like limbs eventually seemed to reach him, sending a cold chill through him, causing a sharp gasp to be pulled in and his legs to give out from underneath.

"G-God _damn it.._!" he swore, hitting his head on the bed post and landing on the floor. His head was spinning and the thing was slowly creeping towards him, watching him with his non-existent eyes. _'Oh god...' _he thought, looking up at it as it loomed over him. _'Ohgodohgodohgod... This thing is going to kill me...' _He squirmed, movement once again returned to him, but didn't get far as a skeletal hand came down on his shoulder, sending another icy surge through him.

Veser shut his eyes, resisting another gasp, his mind racing. What _was _this thing? Yes, he'd become more accepting of various types of "monsters" since meeting Hanna, but he'd never heard of anything like _this _before. Why was it here? What did it _want_?

When none of the expected pain or killing occurred, Veser opened his eyes to once again look up at the faceless man. It seemed to just be holding him there, watching him, as if deciding what to do next. "Um..." he piped quietly, not sure what to do, but instantly regretted his small noise as the thing was broken from its thoughts and let out an agitated growl. The creature started moving again, adjusting its position and pinning Veser down with more force than before.

"A-Ah..." he cringed, struggling to move. His fears peaked again as something about the thing's hold changed, its long fingers becoming even longer, moving down his back in a snake like fashion. "What the... Stop it. Stop _touching _me!" Veser thrashed against the hold, its strange tendril fingers wrapping their way around his neck and arms. "Get off!" he demanded.

"Veser..."

He kicked at the thing as his panic continued to grow, though noticed, with a twinge of annoyance, that the ticking noise was getting louder.

"Veser!"

"What!"

Veser opened his eyes and was instantly met with a pair of worries gray ones. "Wha..? Ples?" The older man's hand was on his shoulder.

He frowned.

In the past week, Veser had taken to sleeping on Ples' couch instead of going back to his dorm or Conrad's endless complaints. He still partially blamed the man for Lee's death, but at least he put up with Veser's accusations with an open mind. It really wasn't his fault after all...

"Did you have another nightmare?"

_The nightmare. _He had forgotten about it for that moment, but the images quickly came rushing back, making him shudder. "Y-Yeah..." Veser glances at one of the many clocks on the wall, pulling in a shaky breath. _Almost four... _

"Oh dear..." Ples frowned, watching Veser closely while helping him back onto the couch. "It seemed particularly violent... What happened?"

"It was... It was bad... I don't really want to talk about it..."

The older man stood, nodding. "I understand." He looked down at Veser, still looking rather worried. "Y-You should probably try and get more sleep."

"Probably..."

Nodding again, Ples walked to the stairs, heading for the second floor. "Goodnight, Veser."

Veser watched as he ascended out of sight, seeing something that was most likely a trick of the light but send a chill through him anyway. Getting more sleep probably _would _be the best thing to do, but he doubted much more of it would come. He was meeting with Hanna and the others at the diner around ten and hoped whatever was going on with the 24-year-old would help distract Veser from his nightmare.

Though it was starting to feel more and more real.

Laying down on his side, Veser looked up to the stairs, thinking again about what he has saw.

He could have sworn Ples was smiling.


	2. In Broad Daylight

**AN: Hnnnnngh. Jegus, I'm really sorry this took so long to get to you, guys. It's been sitting on my computer half finished since soon after the FIRST part was posted. I feel like a big bag of dicks, but things got really busy with school and moving and dfgakdhfgaksdfg and then I started to think that no one would read it anymore because maybe people are starting to loose intrest in HINABN because Tessa hasn't updated in forever and a day and a whole bunch of other needless uncertainties. **

**But oh well. Here it is, take it or leave it. I hope it doesn't suck for being waited on. :I **

**Veser and all of Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name belong to Tessa Stone **

**Slenderman belongs to no one and everyone.**

**Story and shindigs belong to me.**

"…I'm talking _giant alien robots._"

"Really, Hanna… Really?"

"I'm serious! You saw how weird that car was! And like, _woosh_!"

An exasperated sigh came from Conrad, who sat at the edge of the diner's booth, farthest from the tinted window. "I can't believe I let you drag me here again…in the _daylight_!"

Hanna gave a sly grin at the vampire. "At least it's _raining._"

They continued to argue about the situation, but most of it went unheard by Veser as he poked at his half-eaten pancakes with his fork and doodled on his napkin. The happenings of the previous night were still bothering him and he was positively exhausted, so of course it was a little hard to focus on whatever Hanna was rambling on about.

"Veser, are you okay?"

He blinked and looked up from his scrawling, mildly surprised when all attention was suddenly turned to him. It was Toni who has asked the question and she was watching him, a show of worry on her face. "What?" Veser asked, glancing at the different pairs of eyes on him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Now that I think of it," Conrad included, "I haven't heard much of your obnoxious voice this morning. Something's gotta be up."

Veser shot a glare at the man sitting next to him. "I'm _fine._"

"Hrm…" Hanna studied him, his hand on his chin, and tried to decide whether or not Veser was telling the truth, but couldn't seem to come to a conclusion before his attention was drawn to the younger boy's napkin. "Oh, hey, what are you drawing?" He snatched the paper away before Veser could reply with an answer.

"H-Hey!" he protested, frowning.

It took only a moment for the redhead's expression to go from slight confusion to something that could be described as pure glee. "Is this _Slenderman_? This has _gotta_ be Slenderman. There is no way this can be anyone _but_ Slenderman! Just look at these markings!" He pointed to one of the circled x's on the napkin, causing Veser's frown to deepen.

He had just been scribbling them absentmindedly.

"Slenderman?" asked Hanna's nameless companion, watching with a hint of curiosity and maybe even a bit of concern.

"Looks more like a faceless Jack Skellington to me," Conrad muttered, looking over.

"Welllll…" Hanna continued, pushing up his glasses, "the Slenderman is said to have been created on the internet as some kind of contest. Like a 'create your own paranormal image' type of thing. Though as he grew in popularity, people from all over started claiming to have seen him or have photographs with him in it. Some claims date back _years. _He pretty much looks like Veser's doodle."

"Sooo… What's his deal?" Toni inquired. "What's he do?"

"He steals people; mostly kids. Some also say he steals or eats their organs. But, like, he appears and then people _dis_appear, y'know? It's said the ones he's after start having dreams about him first, then actually start _seeing_ him, 'cause he's always watching. After seeing him for a while, he finally takes whoever he happened to be stalking. Apparently, when he moves, it kind of sounds like dry bone on dry bone. Like he's got no flesh of his own underneath his skin. Cool, huh? Ever since I learned about him, I've been wanting to see if I can somehow discover if he's real or not."

"Aaaaaaand Veser looks like he's going to be sick."

"What?" Hanna looked over, blinking.

The more the 24-year-old had spoken, the more uncomfortable Veser had gotten, a tight knot forming in his stomach.

"You okay, Ves?"

Veser pried his eyes away from his demolished breakfast to stare at the redhead. "There's still a chance its fake, right?"

Hanna looked genuinely confused when he replied with, "Yeah. I mean, I guess so."

Orange eyes watched him from across the table, practically looking right through him. "You didn't see this on the internet, did you…"

"Oh. Whoa… Really?" he watches Veser for a moment, then broke into a huge grin.  
"That is _awesome_!" It faded a moment later. "Well, I mean…_not _awesome… Really, but…" He could barely contain a squeal of excitement.

"Great. Thank you. I'm glad my impending doom excites you."

"Ah, I'm sorry. The idea of it's just kind of exciting, y'know?"

"Yeah." Veser pushed his plate away, mumbling a quiet "'scuse me" to Conrad, as he got up.

Hanna frowned a little. "Where're you going?"

He looked back and paused for a moment, then put on a grin, laughing. "I'm fogged, man. Need to go clear my head. Maybe take a run."

"Oh. Yeah. Okay." The half-selkie began to walk away when Hanna called out. "We should do some kind of _stake out _tonight. Maybe at Conrad's!"

"What? No!"

Veser smiled slightly and waved to his friends before walking out into the city.

Fog clouded Veser's mind as he aimlessly wandered the city. He had become beyond exhausted now and probably looked much like an apathetic zombie to the few he passed by in the dreary weather. _'Why?' _he thought to himself. _'One night of practically no sleep shouldn't do _this._' _He was a teenage boy, after all. Of course he'd pulled all nighters before.

Veser found himself in some kind of public park and sat himself down on a bench with a sigh, ignoring the cold puddles of water that seeped into his pants.

He just needed to close his eye for a moment, and then he would be good to go.

He was perfectly fine.

There was something soft and cushioned beneath him; something warm wrapped around him. Letting out a muffled groan, Veser nuzzled deeper into the warmth, not wanting to give way to reality just yet. It wasn't until he realized he wasn't where he had left himself that he opened his eyes, startled by the change in location. He sat up and looked around, blinking. "This is…"

"Are you awake? It's rather unhealthy to fall asleep in the rain, you know."

"Ples?" Veser looked around for the older man, then back to the blanket-covered couch he was sitting on. _'He must have found me and taken me back… I don't remember anything like that…'_ He got up and wandered towards the kitchen, listening for anything other than that persistent ticking of clocks. There were two, freshly steeping cups of tea on the counter and Veser wrinkled his nose in disapproval.

He hated tea.

VESER.

A sound came from the kitchen's screen door, leading outside, and Veser frowned, looking over. When no one seemed to be there, he walked over and reached for the handle, frowning even more when it didn't budge. _'What the hell? Is he locking his doors now...from the _outside_?' _The half-selkie pulled even harder, trying to get it to move. "Ples, where the hell are you, man?"

_Click._

There were sounds from behind him now, that, at first, just sounded like more ticking, but as he listened more carefully, heard faint sounds like clicking, popping, creaking noises. Like the sound of dry bones scraping against one another. _'Shut up, that's stupid.'_ A glimpse of movement was reflected in the nearest clock faces and Veser froze. "...That you, Ples?"

No answer.

VESER.

He didn't want to turn around. He hated to admit it, but he was terrified. This had to be another dream; there was no other explanation. _'It's just a dream,' _he told himself. _'I fell asleep in the park. It's nothing but a stupid _dream_, nothing else.' _Then why did it feel so _real_?

VESER.

That voice. Though it wasn't a voice, he realized now. It was inside his head.

LOOK AT ME.

Veser shut his eyes. There was no way he was going to listen. All he had to do was keep his eyes shut and wait to wake up.

LOOK AT ME, VESER.

He felt himself turn around, but kept his eyes shut tight. Why had he even turned around? _'Wake up. Wakeupwakeupwakeup!' _Veser was panicking again, but he couldn't help it. What else could he have done?

LOOK AT ME, VESER. LOOK AT ME.

The words, though barely a whisper, were practically screaming now, making a frontal assault on his brain, and Veser cringed, opening an eye only slightly. And there is was – the tall, faceless man from his dream, watching him. Except something was different. Did he...

Did he have more arms than before?

He only had two arms before right?

Ignoring his previous decisions to keep his eyes closed, Veser opened both eyes and outright _stared _at the creature. It certainly did have more arms than before, maybe six or eight of them. He couldn't tell because of the way the tall man moved, _swayed, _and Veser couldn't help but watch.

COME TO ME.

He took a step forward. _'What?' _Another. _'No!' _Before long, he was standing in front of the looming creature, no matter how much he screamed at himself to stop. _'Oh god...' _His vision was blurring, warping, and he suddenly felt one of those cold, spidery hands on his shoulder, though this time he was completely immobile. He didn't even flinch. His mind continued to scream at him to run_, _but his body had stopped responding to any and all command.

LOOK AT ME.

Veser's gaze snapped back to the faceless man, noting that it must have strayed at some point. A short burst of panic rose as he realized that as much as he knew that this was all wrong, his internal voices of protests were becoming quieter. He knew that he needed to get away from this creature, but watching the way it moved was...intoxicating.

The icy tendrils once again snaked along his skin, only this time he could barely react as they moved further down. Veser swallowed down a noise as he struggled to form thought, his senses becoming more and more sluggish as if drugged. His vision blurred and he could almost no longer feel the icy tendrils crawl their way across his skin. Time itself seemed to slow as the walls around them started to warp, and Veser was vaguely aware that he was no longer on the ground.

He didn't notice, though, when all clocks stopped ticking at the same time.

He barely heard them all chiming at once with a voice of their own, sending warning.

Barely noticed the creatures faint growl that turned into laughter like tearing metal.

Barely noticed when the tendrils penetrated his skin.

Veser was drowning. At least he thought that was the only thing that could make his lungs burn so much. Gasping, he found himself on the wet sidewalk in front of the bench he had sat down on. He writhed, unable to breathe, and arched his back, clawing at the tendrils around his neck that weren't there. The gasps were replaced by violent coughs as he turned on his side, curling against the legs of the bench.

Once the coughing had subsided minutes later, the young selkie found himself staring at the wet grass beyond the iron feet. It was still day time, the air still its constant gray. He forced himself off the ground, not bothering to brush himself off, as he knew he was completely soaked. The park was deserted and there didn't even seem to be anyone on the streets anymore.

He was completely alone.

At least that's what he thought until he turned to walk away. Stopping, he noticed someone standing across the way on the other side of the park, watching him. Their eyes were covered by a mixture of messy black hair and the hood of a faded green hoodie, but Veser knew where his eyes were looking. Before he could call out to the stranger, they turned, running down an alley way and out of sight.

He stood there for a moment, feeling completely hopeless and confused. Another round of hacking rose up from somewhere in his chest and was able to force it down with a strangled groan of pain as he shook his head.

This was getting crazy.

It needed to stop.

He let his feet take him in the first direction that came to mind.


End file.
